A Glimpse of a Day...
by pari106
Summary: Major AU.


A Glimpse of a Day in Another Life (1/1)  
by pari106  
  
pari106@hotmail.com  
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html  
  
Rating: PG; Disclaimer: FOX, Cameron, and Eglee own Dark Angel…I'm only responsible for my own   
twisted reinterpretations of it; Code: AU.  
  
A/N: Okay, this was inspired by something I read about Star Wars, oddly enough. Seems George Lucas   
had originally played with the idea of making Luke Skywalker female ("Luc"). This is totally off the wall,   
but I thought…what if JC had had the same idea in opposite? So here it is. Just for fun.  
  
  
  
A Glimpse of a Day in Another Life  
by pari106  
  
Lillith Cale stood at a window in her penthouse at Foggle Towers. She sipped champagne. It was late and   
Bach played softly in the background. The room was lit only by candles and the moonlight. Tonight Lilly   
was celebrating.  
  
She decided she'd earned it. Over the last few years she had accomplished so much more than she could   
ever have dreamed when she began Eyes Only. And now, thanks to her mysterious new associate, she   
would be able to accomplish so much more.  
  
Oh, how she'd love to flaunt her accomplishments in her hedonistic Uncle Jonas' face. But she didn't dare.   
Jonas Cale would turn his own mother into the Sector Police for a spot on the society pages. So you can   
imagine his feelings for his niece – the black sheep of the family.  
  
Besides, Eyes Only wasn't about showing off for her uncle. Eyes Only was Lilly's way of making a   
difference in the world. And she would be able to make an even greater difference after tonight.  
  
Lilly smiled, bringing her champagne glass once again to her lips.  
  
Tonight she'd have her answer. Max would decide whether or not he planned to continue helping her.   
Lilly was confident that he would.  
  
Then she tapped a finger nervously against her glass. Well…  
  
She was mostly confident.  
  
She'd met Max nearly a year ago. He'd been different then. Okay, so they'd both been different. She'd   
been a little less open-minded; he'd been a little more jaded. But even then, Lilly had seen the hurt lurking   
beneath the anger in Max's dark eyes. She could sense the compassion in him, past the bitterness and   
distrust. She'd relied on that compassion to sway Max's decision to help Eyes Only. In return, she'd   
agreed to help Max find his family.  
  
Now she could rely on a little bit more.  
  
Now there was also the friendship she'd worked so hard to build with the tall, dark, and handsome soldier   
she'd enlisted. Now she believed she had Max's trust. And perhaps something more? There was no   
denying the spark that had developed between the two of them. The intimacy.  
  
Max no longer needed Lilly's help to find his family. But neither did he need to worry about the exposure   
working with Eyes Only could bring. Manticore – the military program that had produced, and then   
pursued, Max and his family their entire lives – was no longer the formidable power it once was.  
  
Now Max was free to make his choices based souly on what he wanted to do. Not on what was best for his   
family, or what was safest considering Manticore.  
  
Lilly only hoped that he chose her.  
  
There was no reason why he wouldn't.  
  
'Well…'  
  
No reason but one.  
  
Lilly stared out into the night, and sighed. A single name came to her lips.  
  
"Zoe."  
  
  
  
**** ****  
  
  
  
Choices.  
  
For the first time in his life, Max felt like he had real choices to make. And the biggest choice lay with two   
women. Would he stay with one? Or leave with the other?  
  
It was a hell of a choice to make.  
  
Max sighed, standing at the edge of his favorite spot to think – the Seattle Space Needle.  
  
Two women – both blonde and blue-eyed. Both equally important to him. One was more petite than the   
other, but both were beautiful and lithe. One was his sister, and the other…  
  
Max hadn't yet decided what Lilly was to him. But he knew that he'd never find out if he left town with   
Zoe now.  
  
In a way, his decision had already been made for him. It had been made the day Lilly'd seen more in him   
than just a killer or a street kid. It had been made the day he'd seen more in her than just some spoiled,   
aging debutante. And it had been sealed the day he'd watched Lilly loose the use of her legs in a shootout   
he knew he could have prevented.  
  
Max's fists flexed in anger. If only he'd accepted her offer of a partnership, that first time she'd given it…  
  
But he hadn't. He'd made a mistake; one that had nearly cost Lilly her life. He'd made the wrong choice.  
  
He'd be damned if he did it again.  
  
Max heard a noise behind him, but he didn't turn. He didn't have to, as he could sense his sister's   
presence.  
  
"Zoe," he said.  
  
Zoe was not Max's biological sister. But they had grown up at Manticore with only each other and the   
others like them. In that way, they, the X5s, were like siblings.  
  
Zoe walked slowly out of the shadows. Again, Max was struck by how alike, and yet not alike, she and   
Lilly were. Zoe was the only of the X5 females who wore her hair short, in a boyish cut. Krit, Zia, and   
Bon had each opted to grow theirs long. And Lilly wore her hair shoulder-length, usually pulling it back in   
a ponytail or a bun. Max loved it when she wore it loose.  
  
Zoe, of course, being X5, had precise vision; Lilly wore glasses. Lilly looked best in cashmere or silk,   
while Zoe rarely wore anything besides denim or leather.  
  
"Max," she said, reaching him. Her voice was firm and decisive, like the woman herself. Therein lie the   
similarity between she and Lilly. They were two very different people, but they shared the same strength   
of will and character. It was that strength, Max supposed, that drew him to them both.  
  
And it was that strength that would force him to push one of them away.  
  
"I've made my choice, Zo," he said, using the shortened moniker of his sister's name. He could tell that   
she immediately tensed.  
  
"And?"  
  
He didn't say anything more. He didn't have to.  
  
Zoe sighed, looking past him to the view of Seattle. She wouldn't argue. She'd promised herself she   
wouldn't. After all this time, she didn't know what to say to Max anymore. He wouldn't leave   
Washington even when Manticore was still on their tails. She knew it was useless trying to get him to   
leave now if he didn't want to. Max was so stubborn. Even more so than Zoe's other X5 brothers – Tim,   
Syl, Jon, and Jace. Zoe couldn't decide whether it was a personality flaw, the way he was designed, or just   
because he was youngest. Max had lived outside of Manticore's walls, outside of Zoe's command, for   
longer than any of the others.  
  
Whatever the reason, Max had always been the wild card of their bunch. Which was probably what kept   
Zoe coming back for more, she realized, to more than a little discomfort. After all this time, she couldn't   
deny that there was something…different about how she felt about Max, compared to how she felt about   
Tim or Syl or the others. And after all this time, she couldn't deny the chaos that would ensue if she were   
ever to admit that fact.  
  
So Zoe did what she always did – she hid her hurt behind disappointment; her jealousy behind disapproval.   
Her human heart and all the love inside of it, behind the mask of a cool and collected soldier.  
  
She turned back to Max, her face blank and her eyes hard. But she'd promised herself she wouldn't argue.  
  
"Fine," she told him. "I said it was your choice to make."  
  
Then she turned to leave.  
  
"Zoe, wait…" Max grabbed her arm, making her pause. He sighed.  
  
He couldn't go with her. But that didn't mean that he wanted to lose his sister forever. She *was*   
important to him. It's just that he had to be with Lilly right now.  
  
"Don't go," he said.   
  
Zoe just stared at him. But after a moment those icy eyes began to melt, just slightly.  
  
"I'll come back," she promised. Didn't she always?  
  
It wasn't all Max could hope for, but he knew it was all Zoe was able to give on his terms. So, after a   
moment more, he let her go. They stared at one another.  
  
Then she disappeared.  
  
Max watched the sky a while longer before leaving, as well. He headed for Foggle Towers.  
  
  
  
**** ****  
  
  
  
Max entered Lilly's apartment the way he had that first night they'd met – through the skylight. He   
expected to find her in the computer room, per usual. But instead she was sitting near a window in the   
main room, asleep in her chair.  
  
Despite himself, Max smiled. Smiling was something he hadn't done a lot of until he'd met Lilly.  
  
He walked carefully over to her side, kneeling to look at her as she slept. He pulled her glasses gently from   
her, lying them on a nearby table. He brushed a few strands of her golden hair away from her face. Then   
he just looked at her.  
  
She was so beautiful.  
  
Who'd have thought, more than a year ago, when they'd met, that they would be here like this? That they   
would be friends? That he would have fallen in love with her?  
  
Max sighed. It was true. He'd fallen in love with Lilly. That had kept him here in Seattle more than   
anything else. And he wasn't sure, but he thought that she loved him, as well. She wasn't quite ready to   
admit it – she was still hung up on their age and her not being able to walk. But she loved him. He'd   
teased her once, one night while she cooked something divine for him, as she often did, that she'd loved   
him since the moment she caught him trying to burglar her place. But the comment had been too close to   
home for either of them, so he'd never teased her like that again.  
  
Now Max drew Lilly up in his arms. More than once during the year of their working relationship, he'd   
snuck into the penthouse to find that Lilly had fallen asleep in the middle of her work. Or that she'd simply   
fallen asleep while taking a break from her work. She never seemed to be able to make herself go to bed,   
so she just slept wherever she dropped. And whenever Max found her like that, he scooped her up like this   
and carried her to her bed. Tucking her in before slipping out, once again.  
  
Most of the time, Lilly slept through the whole thing.  
  
This time she didn't.  
  
"Max?" His name was spoken softly, huskily. Lilly's voice was clouded with sleep. The sight of her went   
straight to Max's heart. She looked so cute – all sleepy-eyed. If she were awake she'd probably throw a fit   
that he was seeing her with her hair all amiss. But the sound of Lilly's voice…the sound of her calling out   
to him from her dreams, from her bed…that went somewhere else.  
  
Max untangled himself from Lilly quickly when he laid her on the bed, but something kept him from   
walking away just yet.  
  
He set down on the edge of the bed, next to her.  
  
"Hey," he told her, finding that she was still looking up at him through lidded eyes.  
  
"Hey," she replied, burrowing down into her covers with a sleepy smile.  
  
Max grinned. Then his expression grew tender. He reached over and lightly caressed her cheek. Then he   
stood.  
  
"Goodnight, Lilly," he told her.  
  
"'night," she replied.  
  
But before he left the room, something seemed to suddenly occur to her. Lilly's eyes opened.  
  
"Max?" she said, louder this time.  
  
He turned. "Yeah?"  
  
Lilly was sitting straight up in bed. She blinked. How the hell did she get into bed?  
  
"Uh…"  
  
She looked around her, then decided that was unimportant. Max was here. He was here. Did that mean…  
  
"You saw Zoe."  
  
Lilly couldn't decide whether she meant that as a statement or a question, but Max nodded anyhow.  
  
"What did you tell her?"  
  
Lilly's heart was beating. The breathing that had evened out during sleep had sped up once again. Max   
had seen Zoe…so he must have made his choice. Had he chosen her?  
  
The answer to that question meant so much more to Lilly than she'd ever feel comfortable admitting.  
  
She'd been mostly confident that he would choose her. To keep helping her. But if he hadn't…  
  
Max didn't answer right away.  
  
'God, he's gorgeous,' the thought came, unbidden to Lilly's brain. And the most gorgeous thing about him   
had to be his smile.  
  
He was smiling now.  
  
"We'll talk about it in the morning," he told her.  
  
Lilly blinked.  
  
'We'll…"  
  
Then, slowly, she smiled.  
  
"In the morning," she repeated quietly.  
  
With one last look, Max turned and left. And Lilly sank back into her covers, smiling.  



End file.
